Think About Your Kids’ Eyes in Eye Exam Awareness Month!

This post was sponsored byThink About Your Eyes as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. All thoughts and opinions are completely my own.

If your house is anything like mine, you are in full back to school mode! That means shopping, meal planning and a whole host activities that go with heading back to school. For us, this means sports physicals as well, but there’s an important part of my children’s health that I don’t always think about, but definitely am now and that is eye health! This is particular important as school starts…check out this video from Think About Your Eyes, which is a national public awareness campaign that promotes the benefits of eye health. It’s pretty powerful!

After I saw this, I was pretty astounded. How horrible would it be if one of my kiddos was struggling like that to see, and I wasn’t even aware? For me, one of the key points was that kids may not necessarily know when they are having vision trouble, because they may not know what “normal” vision is like. Vision is so important for learning – around 80% of what children learn comes through their eyes, but an astounding 86% of children do not receive comprehensive eye exams, and with 25% of school-aged children having eye problems, the issue is critical.

I know that my children’s eye health hasn’t always been at the forefront of my mind. And I’m not alone. Only 40% of parents feel that an eye exam is part of a child’s healthy checkup schedule, as opposed to 80% who say that a yearly trip to the pediatrician and dentist are must-dos. I have always sort of relied on my pediatrician to catch eye issues, but scheduling a comprehensive eye exam with an optometrist before school starts in the fall allows a thorough exam that can help identify a child’s vision problems before it starts to affect their learning.

August is Eye Exam Awareness Month, which makes it the perfect time to get your kids an appointment to see an eye doctor. You can use the Think About Your Eyes eye care professional locator to find an eye doctor near you and schedule an exam today! I know I will be, because I want to make sure that if my kids have eye problems, we can detect them early when they are most treatable.

So how are you getting ready for back to school? And how to you make sure that your kids’ eyes are taken care of?

Comments

It’s so important to think about your eyes before school starts to ensure that you have a great learning experience! I just took an eye exam last week and everything was great. I’ll have to get my little one’s eyes checked too.

I admit that my childrens’ eye health is one of those things that I also don’t always think about, though I know I should. I didn’t realize that there was an eye awareness month — how fitting for it to be the month everyone goes back to school. Guess I need to get to making some appointments.

I probably sounds pretty horrible for me to say, but I don’t often think about getting my kids’ eyes checked – I have good vision and I guess I just assume that they do as well. This is a great reminder that may not be the case and it’s my job to be better at staying on top of that.

Children’s eyes are very important and I have always been a huge proponent of “proper” sunglasses even my kids were super little. When we protect their eyes and have them checked when they are younger it is easier to address problems before they get too big or out of control.

I remember the first time that my mom took me to eye doctor. I was a little bit scared, and at the age of 8 thats to be expected, but the doctor was amazing! I had so much fun, that I asked my mom if we could go back the next day :) Eye health is so important and I am glad my parents took the time to install that in me at a young age.

I am also one of those parents who forgets about checking my kids’ eyesight. As a woman who’s been wearing glasses since second grade, I really should be on my A-game and get the kids’ eyes examined soon. Thanks so much for the friendly reminder.

I take my kids every year to get their eyes checked be I do think about our eyes. In fact, we went with my one child and found so many retinal tears in his eyes that he is being monitored, and this was even after we have been there year after year. You just never know what is going to come out of an eyecheck.

I struggled to see in class when I was in 4th grade, and I didn’t know I needed glasses and was too shy and embarrassed to ask myself. I really love this post, and I hope that parents do take time to think about eyesight, because it is heavily overlooked! (pun intended!)